Sunday, October 25, 2015

Elephant Actors #8


"Billy Rose's Jumbo" on Broadway.

6 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

The "Hipp," built by Thompson and Dundy of Luna Park Fame, originally had a very big stage and regular theater style seating (over 5,000 seats). Billy Rose rebuilt it in a circular design for "Jumbo" and that is why Cole Bros was able to play it in 1937.

Unknown said...

Look! She has a version of las globos de La muertes. I like Munzies costume best.

Wade G. Burck said...

LOL Darlene, my first thought was the immortal John Milton Herriott quoting, "it's all been done before."

Wade Burck

Roger Smith said...

I stand to be corrected, but I believe the man @ L is Rudy Moeller. In a full-page obit for him in the Thousand Oaks NEWS-CHRONICLE, in '68, he appears in a publicity shot in similar wardrobe. I am uncertain if Rudy's credits include the Billy Rose show. Few may remember that it was Rudy who went in for May Kovar when she was killed by a lion at Goebel's Lion Farm, on December 20, 1949. The lion had killed Ms. Kovar instantly with a snap of her neck, but Rudy drove him off from mauling the body in front of her children.

Wade G. Burck said...

Crazy!!!! I didn't realize it before, but apparently her young children went in the cage and attempted to get the lion off Kovar. Is that an actuality or did new's hype turn children hysterical outside into children entering the cage? No link but if you google:

Wild Lion Kills Woman Trainer In Cage; Children Try Rescue

it gives more of an account, from a Missouri newspaper which is why I question validity.

Wade Burck

Roger Smith said...

No hype. That's how it happened. May Kovar persisted in an error many foreign trainers shared. She stood beside the tunnel door, with her back against the bars, and called her cats in. The idea was to get behind them and drive them to their seats. Anyone can guess what happened that day. The tunnel door man closed the door too quickly behind the lion, whose name I've seen as Sultan, and it caught his tail. Sultan spun around in pain and protest, and there was May, trapped in place. Sultan took her by the throat, broke her neck with one shake, and killed her instantly. Her daughter and son tried to enter to fight the lion off, but Rudy got in and threw them out. He knew May was dead, but drove Sultan off and down the tunnel, to save the woman's body. Many claimed to have been in on the moment. One story had 5 men beating Sultan off with pipes. All Thousand Oaks veterans agreed this was false. Rudy was in there alone.